Someone everyone loves to hate

Last night when I was making the best use of remote while watching TV in the common room, my hands suddenly stopped ... I saw two faces together sharing the television screen. Those two are the people whom I personally believe to be the best living icons of success, both these men have revolutionised the world, both of them are leaders in their own field, they are Microsoft Corp. Chairman, Mr. Bill Gates and Infosys founder, Mr. Narayan Murthy. They have figured in the list of World's most admired CEOs/chairman at No.1 and No.8 respectively. And, they were being interviewed together by NDTV India, 24*7.

But, I am not going to waste my words describing the long list of their achievements rather I wish to talk about one line that Mr. Gates said. When he was asked about the anti-US feeling gaining acceptance in many parts of world, his reply was "Everyone loves to hate US, but at the same time, those very people wish to be in US, they love US as well". I think the statement applies in general, "Everyone loves to hate the man at the top, while they love to be at the top".

This feeling is mainly because of the jealousy and envy that one feels, for the reason of not being at the top. They try hard to be at the top, and many a times, due to sheer misfortune (or some people love to term it as lack of passion), they do not reach the pinnacle for which they strived hard. This is not always failure, but more often it is the lack of the lustrous success. Then, these people who cannot achieve success, attempt hard to find faults with the man who has achieved it. They start making movies like "Pirates of the silicon valley" to portray great achievers like Mr. Gates in bad light. But, such attempts to malign the achievers with great publicity do bring some infamy. In fact, it does at most of the times. Because, in a race of 100, one is the winner. So, 99 others start spreading rumors about how it was a bad decision, the winner was taking power capsules, he had violated the rules and what not.

People say that Mr. Gates has little technical contribution, he bought DOS, he copied windows from Macintosh and what not. I wish to ask them, why didn't you do the same at the right oppurtunity? Instead of praising the man for his long-sightedness, for his business mind, for his great vision, for his efforts in bringing computers in daily life to the common man, all are busy accusing that he has bought most of the stuff being sold under Microsoft brand. They do not praise him for seeing the potential of "Presenter" to become Powerpoint. Nobody says that Steve Jobs got the idea of a mouse from Xerox, because Jobs is not as successful as Mr. Gates. I am sure if he had been, he would not have been spared.

Though, it is a fashion to be a linux/unix user, nobody can doubt that Windows still is the most user-friendly operating system ever built. Undobtedly, it is expensive but without that, could anyone have thought that a software can make someone the richest man of the planet?? There are no free lunches in this world.

I do not care what one says, I simply adore the man everyone loves to hate.